[The effectiveness of development aid policies in developing countries between the social engineering and Local Knowledge Syndrome]

Abstract

This article has sought to confirm an alternative explanation that "Local Knowledge Syndrome" is a cause of the ineffectiveness of donor - promoting public sector reform programs. The main idea behind this explanation is that Knowledge and ideas that form th e basis of donor reform programmes can seriously affect their outcomes and their level of effectiveness. There is clearly a growing appreciation that policy depends on local knowledge for implementation, but little attention has been paid so far to incorpo rate information on local knowledge successfully in inhospitable or poor political and social environments. Since the 1950s, donors' aid policies towards developing countries have mostly been developed based on the own experiences in reforming the governan ce system. An idealized model was exported in the conviction that the recipient countries would implement this model without the problems and obstacles experienced in the western societies. The export was one - way and that all the goods and persons were fro m western origin because quality was supposed to come from there.